1. “To deny oneself is to disown oneself as the center on one’s existence.” — The Catholic Study Bible (Pg. 1283; MT 16:24)

2. Sin thwarts us in our vocation as God’s children. Pp. 549, Catechism of the Catholic Church

3. Regarding the Transfiguration: “Peter did not yet understand this when he wanted to remain with Christ on the mountain. It has been reserved for you, Peter, but for after death. For now, Jesus says: ‘Go down to toil on earth, to serve on earth, to be scorned and crucified on earth. Life goes down to be killed; Bread goes down to suffer hunger; the Way goes down to be exhausted on his journey; the Spring goes down to suffer thirst; and you refuse to suffer?’” — St. Augustine, Sermo 78, 6: PL 38, 492-493, cf. Lk 9:33

Sin is, to me, a fixation on self. A feeding of that which is of the earth and of ourselves. A selfishness of mind, body and spirit. A turning from His will, in the preference of our own. By pleading with God to remove all suffering from our life, we are asking not to be a part of Christ’s redemptive suffering on the cross. And to choose not to take up our cross and suffer alongside Him, we are choosing also not to share in his Resurrection and kingdom. Instead, we should choose to take up our cross, and suffer alongside our Lord — but not blindly. We should always unite our suffering to his for a purpose. Somehow, God will make our suffering efficacious for those purposes. We should not waste our suffering, but have it be used as redemption for others. Enter fully into the body of Christ and give fully of ourselves — not only the good parts and the surplus of ourselves and our possessions, but of our suffering, pain and need. When we have given of ourselves until we are empty and wrung out, will we truly know what it means to submit completely and receive back all the grace of our Lord. The more we empty of ourselves, the more we have room for Him.

Lord, in the words of John the Baptist on this day of the Baptism of our Lord, help me to decrease in myself, so that He who dwells within me can increase.
Amen.

Also, at the beginning of Vocation Week, let us remember the words of Fr. Mark’s homily today (he quoting someone else, I just forget who): “There is no VAcation from your VOcation.” How true. May we always live according to God’s plan for our life. Please join me in praying for people’s discernment of the vocation God has in mind for them, and the acceptance of this calling, whether to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life, married life or single life; may all of God’s people live for the glory of Him according to their state of life.

Proverbs 16:30
He who winks his eye is plotting
trickery;
he who compresses his lips has
mischief ready.

This shows how we are able to lie with our bodies. It brought to mind for me teachings from the Theology of the Body almost immediately, especially when you are speaking of conjugal union between two people who are not married. For in that act, your body is saying to your partner, “everything I have is yours.” If you are not married, this is not true. And, whether you are married or not, if you are contracepting, you are still making a lie of this in that you are withholding your fertility from your partner. You are saying, in essence, “You can have all of me…except this.” So, in the very act in which we are to make ourselves vulnerable and open completely to the other person, we are holding back. We are not making a gift of ourselves, but rather a leasing of ourselves, with stipulations and conditions. Which would you rather have? The free and complete gift, or the conditional lease?

Song 2: 12
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in
our land.

The pruning of the vines just sounded so very end-times to me, where the unworthy would be forcibly separated from the vine, while the good fruit would remain with the vine. The flowers appearing on the earth, as a pointing to the New Earth and the New Jerusalem. My favorite part is “the song of the dove is heard in our land.” For in that, I see the Holy Spirit being heard and felt and known by all who dwell within the land. That time of complete unity with God. Here now, so often is the Holy Spirit suppressed and not heard — how wonderful it will be when we are all able to hear the song of the dove throughout the land! :)

David expressed a desire: “Oh, that someone would give me a drink from the cistern by the gate at Bethlehem!” Thereupon the Three broke through the encampment of the Philistines, drew water from the cistern by the gate at Bethlehem, and carried it back to David. But David refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as a libation to the Lord, saying, “God forbid that I should do such a thing! Could I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?” For at the risk of their lives they brought it; and so he refused to drink it. Such deeds as these the Three warriors performed.

Now, I know that David is supposed to be a man after God’s own heart. I also know that David blows it rather badly with Bathsheba. This, to me, seems to be more of a Bathsheba moment. I mean, it is good and all that he realizes at some point the selfishness of his request — a drink of water versus the lives of three of his most loyal men — but, really, isn’t that a little late? Why would you even voice a request like that, knowing that you have 3 people around you who are more than willing to risk themselves for your every whim? And once you have the water, isn’t it kind of a smack in the face to the people who risked their lives to get you the drink, to not drink it?

He *does* offer it to the Lord, but would this have been an offering which God would have wanted?

Any comments would be appreciated. :)

Question:
Matthew 8:28-34
Could the demoniacs be a type or foreshadowing of Judas, in that when their badness is confronted by Christ, they choose to leave His presence and effect their own self-destruction?

Book Review:
“Church Fathers” by Pope Benedict XVI — I loved this! I just got it a couple of days ago, and despite my perpetual busyness, I have already finished! As always, the Pope write clearly, and in a very engaging manner. The book consists of a series of Wednesday audiences (not unlike Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body talks), each dedicated to a particular church father. He really is able to make them come alive for me and gives me a desire to read their works and dive deeper into the faith, which is revealed as the true faith which has always been held. I came away from the book with a greater sense and realization of the truth and catholicity of our faith and a hunger for further knowledge. Obviously, I highly recommend it — particularly to those who want an overview of the church fathers before making a decision as to who to read first! :) After reading this book, you won’t think of them (as I kind of did) as anonymous, old men who died a long time ago and don’t have anything to say to me, now. Ha! As the Pope mentions for almost every Father, their advice is always “timely,” especially in the culture of our day, today.

Prayer:
Lord, I am not worthy of you, but only say the word and I shall be healed in heart, mind and body. Please give me understanding, strength and desire to conform my will to yours. Amen.

Quote:
“Call me a crazy lady…one more time….” from Hancock, seen with Terry this weekend.

Movie Review:
Hancock — I thought at first that this was simply going to be another “comic book” movie. I was wrong. Either that or there’s more to comic book stories than I generally get from them. This particular movie I quite enjoyed. Outside of the profanity (which, really, just made me giggle), it was a story of the redemption of man. It took the main character from his sinful, slovenly, selfish ways and transformed him into a man who truly cared for his neighbor and sacrificed on behalf of others. It highlighted the importance of family ties, working for the good of the poor and needy, and of being a good example. It was also a great portrayal of the quote, “To whom much is given, much will be expected.” It was emotionally well-crafted, and you had real empathy for all the characters. The acting I respected. Of course, I’m always a fan of Will Smith, too, so that helped. :) The ending of the film was a little unexpected, but completely fit and was very well done. It would be a great movie to watch again, knowing the ending now to see what foreshadowing there is, because I know that there is a bunch. I could probably keep going on about this movie and the deep meaning that I got from it, but for now I will just encourage you to go out and see it, if you have not done so already. :)

Announcement:
I have (finally) posted ALL of my World Youth Day photos!!! Whoo-hoo! Be sure to check out all 2,665 images and videos here.

Here is the scene this morning, as I have taken the day off to **finally** have my dryer delivered (Yay!  I can actually do my laundry at home!  Read more on the laundry saga here):

As you can see, I have my Bible (kind of important, you know, for a Bible study), my Catechism (hiding under the Matthew binder), the binder for Adventures in Matthew containing the Questions and the Answers (promise, I won’t cheat — except if you count it to be cheating to answer your questions in front of the Tabernacle), paper/notes, and the ever-necessary Starbucks!

 Yippee!  I’m so excited to see what we will learn this year!  Last year’s Great Adventure Bible Timeline was a great, great course for me, and really helped me to understand the stories of the Bible and to get some idea of the history (coming from no background at all, it gave me a MUCH needed foundation).  I highly recommend this series to anyone wanting to get to know the Bible better. 

This was part of the first reading:

“Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.”

And, while I really don’t get most of Revelation, for a moment, neurons fired and I had this thought.  ‘Hmm.  Maybe this refers to the Church Militant, here on earth, since the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant would be up there in Heaven and Purgatory.’

Interesting thought, eh?  Well, it’s the best I can do this morning.  Enjoy!  :)

 With a law, there is the concept that if you break the law, you will incur a penalty.  The example given was that the speed limit is 70 on M14, and if you happen to go 90 and get caught, there is a stiff penalty.  (Of course, he says that he doesn’t know this from personal experience….)

Hmmm….  Now, I do happen to speed along M14…daily….  Keeping that in mind, let’s continue with our studies, shall we?

He goes on to say (not verbatim, but in essence) that a law makes you aware that you need help.  That there’s nothing wrong with the law in itself, but something wrong with my capacity to keep it.  And also that a bad place to be is to live under the illusion that I’m fine.

Oh great.  So, nothing wrong with a speed limit, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the fact that I habitually do not observe it.  And that I think that my action in this regard is okay, is a deeper sickness within me.

Ouch.

2.  Excerpt from yesterday’s dental appointment:
Hygienist:  “Do you really go to Mass every day?”
Me:  “No.  I just made that up because I thought it would make for a good story.”
“What?!?  Seriously??”
“No.”
*Her eyes get big, stares at me*
I continue, “No.  Really.  I go every day.”
Her:  ” ‘I just made that up because I thought it would make for a good story.’  Whoo!  Personality like yours, you aren’t going to stay single for long!”
“And just today, I got my annulment in the mail….”

3. Christine comes over to ask me for help with the label printer, since I have (basically) a NukeE, EE, and Master Lab Tech qual.  How does she know the printer is working?  Somehow…. there are labels printing out that say “Jenn is Wicked Ninja!  :)”  Don’t know how that happened….  :)

Have you ever tried to highlight with white colored pencil?  Doesn’t work too well.  So I had to pick another color.  I picked pink.  Why pink?  No, not because I am a girly-girl, because, if you know me, you know that that is far from the truth.  First, I was looking for a color visually different from the other colors I have used thus far in my Bible.  Second, pink (rose, for those of you who cringe just at the word….) is the color of the robes that are allowed to be worn on Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent.  “Gaudete” meaning, roughly, “rejoicing.”  And to designate the period of “The Church,” being Acts and everything following it, what better color to represent it?  Shouldn’t we be rejoicing all the time after the Resurrection?  (And, yes, there’s that period between the Resurrection and Pentecost, but according to the Bible study program, that is categorized under “Messianic Fulfillment,” and the apostles were still scared and hiding, until they were filled with the Holy Spirit — so I think they were really rejoicing after Pentecost….)  :)